Jason Kline
Head Men's Basketball Coach
7th Season

Jason Kline enters his seventh season as head men’s basketball coach at Park University with a 112-74 (.602)  record at Park, taking the Pirates to three NAIA national tournaments in five seasons, including both the 2010 and 2011 Buffalo Funds-NAIA Division I Men’s Basketball National Championships.

Last season, he took the Pirates to the first round of the NAIA tournament, winning the school’s first-ever American Midwest Conference men’s basketball tournament championship, leading the team to a pair of road victories over nationally ranked teams in the semifinal and championship rounds.

The Pirates opened the tournament with a come-from-behind win at home over Williams Baptist College, trailing at the half before coasting to a double-digit victory over the Eagles, and the team came from behind again in the semifinals, claiming a two-point win on the road at No. 18 Columbia College.

Park didn’t trail for the rest of the tournament, leading wire-to-wire at McKendree University to claim the tournament championship, earning the Pirates a spot downtown to take on Mountain State University.

At season’s end, the Pirates had an All-American, Kline’s 15th, when Kyle Rausch averaged 11 points and six rebounds on the way to honorable mention All-America status.

Rausch was also a Daktronics-NAIA Scholar-Athlete under Kline’s watch, joining three other teammates – Mark Halsell, Vince Langkamp and Tyler Price – helping the Pirates finish with the NAIA’s second-most student-athletes earning the NAIA’s highest academic honor.

Kline’s Pirates also had six academic all-conference honorees and two all-conference selections, Rausch and Goldeng Deng.

The American Midwest Conference’s Coach of the Year in 2009-10, Kline also claims a pair of NAIA Division I Independent Coach of the Year awards, one for his coaching job in the 2006-07 season when the Pirates also made a second round appearance in the 2007 NAIA national tournament.
 
Kline coached his 14th NAIA All-American in 2009-10, as Herschel Rodgers landed on the NAIA’s third team, marking the fourth-straight year with an All-American in a Park uniform under Kline’s watch.
 
Kline’s players’ performance on the court is matched by their accolades in the classroom, including 2010 Daktronics-NAIA Scholar-Athlete Jeremy Voorhees, who led a group of seven academic all-conference honorees.
 
Park’s 2009-10 campaign was one of the most successful in its men’s basketball history, as the Pirates reached 23 wins to become the fourth team since the 1961-62 season to post at least 20 wins and advance to an NAIA national tournament.
 
The season also marked the Pirates’ first back in the American Midwest Conference, and Kline promptly led the team to a second-place finish behind nationally ranked McKendree University, going 12-2 in the conference season.
 
Seven of Park’s 10 losses in 2009-10 came to NAIA national tournament teams, including one in the tournament to Biola University, and two more were to NCAA Division II programs.
 
In 2008-09, Kline had the Pirates within a game of playing for the 2009 NAIA Division I Independent Tournament title, falling in the semifinals to Crichton at Tullis Arena in Orangeburg, S.C.
 
The 2008-09 season also marked the second-straight 16-win campaign for the Pirates, who finished 16-14 with two Daktronics-NAIA Scholar Athletes and one All-American in Jon Meriweather, who was named to the NAIA’s Second Team as well as the Preseason First Team distributed by Basketball Times. On Senior Day, the Pirates made it three-straight seasons with a win over crosstown rival Rockhurst University, drumming the Hawks 79-58. In all, Park beat two NCAA Division II opponents and took another to the wire, testing NCAA Division II power Southwest Baptist in late November.
 
Park played 23 of its 30 games on the season against NCAA Division II and ranked NAIA opponents, posting eight wins over ranked NAIA opponents, including six wins over teams who advanced to NAIA national tournaments.
 
Kline posted 16 wins in the 2007-08 season, advancing to the semifinals of the 2008 NAIA Independent Region Tournament in Orangeburg, S.C. Kline also coached an All-American who was named NAIA Player of the Week at Park for the second-straight year in 2007-08, as Meriweather earned three All-America distinctions as well as two national weekly honors in 2007-08.
 
In 2006-07, Brandon Voorhees was named to the All-America squad in addition to earning national player of the week honors, also being named Basketball Times Co-Player of the Year at the close of the season.
 
During the 2007-08 season, Meriweather earned his first All-America distinction, and Kline’s 2007-08 squad also produced three Daktronics-NAIA Scholar Athletes.
 
The 2006-07 season marked one of the greatest single-season turnarounds in NAIA Men’s Basketball History, as the Pirates went from a 10-22 record in 2005-06 to an .813 winning percentage during the NAIA tournament run. In addition to the turnaround and tournament appearance, Park also recorded its first win over an NCAA Division I school under Kline’s watch – a 103-99 exhibition triumph over UMKC in November.
 
Kline came to Park after seven successful seasons at Indiana Tech University in Fort Wayne, Ind., where he led the Warriors to a 140-84 record during his tenure. In 2004-05, he guided Indiana Tech to a school record 29 wins (eight losses) and the school’s second straight NAIA Division II National Tournament appearance, advancing to the Elite Eight.
 
Over his last three seasons at Indiana Tech, Kline’s teams averaged over 26 wins per year. In each of the last four seasons, his teams finished the regular season in the top 35 of the final NAIA Division II Men’s Basketball ratings, including a ranking of eighth in 2003-04 and 15th in 2004-05.
 
Kline, who was named the WHAC (Wolverine-Hoosier Athletic Conference) Coach of the Year in 2003-04, led Indiana Tech to a regular season conference title in 2003-04 and to the WHAC Tournament Championship in 2004-05.
 
Individually, Kline’s players have accumulated a multitude of honors. Twenty-one student-athletes have been named NAIA Scholar-Athletes under Kline, while 15 have earned athletic All-America honors. Sixty-four players have been tabbed Academic All-Conference, along with 31 All-Conference performers.
 
Kline, who has an overall coaching record of 252-158 (.615) over 13 seasons, started his coaching career as an assistant at Indiana Tech from 1993-95, where he earned his undergraduate degree in business administration in 1994.
 
Kline then spent three seasons as an assistant coach at Kansas Wesleyan University, in Salina, Kan., which is where he completed his M.B.A. in 1998. He and his wife, Jolina, a former women’s basketball student-athlete at Kansas Wesleyan, have two sons, Jacob and Jackson.

Gordon Stubblefield
Assistant Men's Basketball Coach
7th Season

Gordon Stubblefield is in his seventh season as an assistant men’s basketball coach at Park University after also playing a season for head coach Jason Kline at Indiana Tech.

Stubblefield played one season under current Park Head Coach Jason Kline at Indiana Tech University in 1998-99, earning All-America honors.
 
A 1999 graduate of Indiana Tech with a bachelor’s degree in business management, Stubblefield currently works for First Call Alcohol/Drug Prevention and Recovery.